The commonplace understanding of the early modern witch hunts is that they were an attack on women. That's generally true, but it's also a much more complex picture than crass violent misogyny. I'll be explaining this in depth in the next podcast series, but let's get started. I interviewed the great witchcraft historian Malcolm Gaskill a few days ago. You'll hear excerpts from his insights on the show, but only supporting members get to listen to our conversation in full. In fact if you're a member and reading on the web, the episode is showing up right below. If you're not, now's your time to join.
I asked Gaskill where all our visual images of the witch came from – the pointy hat, the crooked nose, the boiling cauldron... The witch, he told me, is two things: a bundle of negative emotions ("wrath, rage, anger, spite, envy", both that she embodies and that she inspires in others) and an inversion of ideals. In a patriarchal society – and bear with me, I'll explain on the show what exactly patriarchy means to 17th-century folks – the ideal person is a man. So the witch is a woman.
The ideal woman is a young, fertile mother. The witch is post-menopausal. Her age is signalled with a larger nose, a falling face and a tall hat that's completely out of fashion.
The ideal woman is a submissive wife. The witch is wilful and independent from men, often a widow or a single woman.
The ideal woman is a helpful and hard-working neighbour. The witch is spiteful and selfish, often poor and demanding more from the community than she contributes.
This inversion shows up in the witches' accessories too, which turn domestic items on their head. A good mother keeps the home clean with her broomstick; a witch mounts it to leave the home for sexual escapades. A good mother nourishes her family from her cauldron; a witch brews harm from it. A good mother nurses babies with milk; a witch suckles demonic imps with blood.
Where things get really muddy is that's only the picture of a witch in people's minds. When it came to making actual witchcraft accusations, people didn't point the finger at people who looked like witches. It was more about who felt like a witch. An annoying neighbour, a longtime rival, someone you crossed once and whose retribution you feared. Most old women were left alone.
Outsider status didn't guarantee an accusation, but it helped the accusation make sense. No one was sure who was a witch and they didn't want to get it wrong. If you had the "weaker mind" of a woman (don't shoot the messenger here), it would make more sense that you would fall for the devil's tricks. If you were poor, you had the incentives to take his bargain. Any way that you diverged from the ideal vigorous, male, religiously orthodox, pillar-of-the-community householder put you at a higher risk.
We'll be exploring a whole lot more of that. Sign up to support Broad History if you'd like to listen to the whole hourlong episode with Dr Malcolm Gaskill AND help me make the show. Thanks and welcome to my two newest members, Gina and Mark, and to donor Amy. Couldn't do this without you!
Learn all about the witch hunts right away! Follow along as I make the new series, listen to full interviews with expert historians and binge the whole series on the day of release by supporting Broad History with a monthly or annual contribution. Thanks so much for your support!
Read up
Malcolm Gaskill is the author of several great general audience books about the witch hunts. I can recommend them all.
Witchfinders is about self-appointed witchfinder general Matthew Hopkins, who roamed the English countryside in the 1640s. He became a bit of a boogeyman whose name traveled down the generations far more (unfortunately) than his hundred or so victims in a few short years. Today he'd have a self-help podcast.
🇺🇸 Buy Witchfinders in the US
🇬🇧 Buy Witchfinders in the UK
The Ruin of All Witches is Gaskill's best-seller, about a witch hunt among New England Puritans decades before Salem. I found it engrossing and not gonna spoil it for you but not at all what I expected in the end.
🇺🇸 Buy The Ruin of All Witches in the US
🇬🇧 Buy The Ruin of All Witches in the UK
And finally, Worlds of Fear and Wonder comes out this month (8 October in the UK, 27 October in the US). It's my favourite and a wonderful exploration of our ancestors' relationship to the supernatural and why people saw witches where we (mostly) no longer do.
🇺🇸 Pre-order Worlds of Fear and Wonder in the US
🇬🇧 Pre-order Worlds of Fear and Wonder in the UK
Want more history book recommendations?
There's a new history newsletter in town. Friend of the show and past guest Megan Kate Nelson has teemed up with podcast host Kate Carpenter to launch the Drafting the Past newsletter, dedicated to finding and critiquing great non-fiction history books. There's so much getting published, but hardly any news outlets employ professional book reviewers anymore so I'm very excited to see this space open to help me make my selections. Check it out here.
Pods while you wait – historical villains edition
I'm jealous of everyone else's podcast titles. It took me TWO YEARS to come up with "Broad History" and it's just... ok. Here are three way-better-titled history podcasts I recommend you listen to while waiting for my next series.
Wrong Side of History
I already told you about my mate Jay Singleton's excellent show about understanding history's bad guys the way they understood themselves. After a first series trying to understand women who opposed giving themselves the right to vote, he's back at it with series 2 – on why eugenicists thought they were the good guys. This isn't the kind of show that makes you friends on social media, and that's why I love it. I don't look to history for role models; I want to understand why we get it so twisted sometimes.
This Guy Sucked
Talk about a title that makes me green with envy – it's all there! Historian Dr. Claire Aubin invites a new expert every week to take apart the legacy of a famous guy and explain why he actually sucked. Sometimes they obviously suck (hello, Dick Cheney), sometimes it takes a bit more explaining (Charlemagne?), sometimes they're even a woman (Phyllis Schlafly, not our greatest).
Bad Gays
The OG of villain history pods. Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller have embraced over nine seasons and counting the notion that true equality means everyone gets to be equally shit human beings. Brit listeners might like their full 6-episode (!) series on Peter Mandelson.
All that to say, there will 100% be a Broad History series about terrible women when I'm done with the witch hunts and I'm calling it Violent Femmes. Now THAT'S a title I'm proud of.
Remember to get your membership and dive into the episode. Thank you 💜
